‘Iran nuclear deal game: ‘France-good cop & US-bad cop’

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (C) walks with others during a break in a meeting with world representatives seeking to pin down a nuclear deal with Iran at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel in Lausanne March 31, 2015. (Reuters/Brendan Smialowski) / Reuters

Powerful forces in France along with the US administration don’t want a nuclear deal with Iran; they have an interest in tension with it, says Seyed Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran. They are supported by Saudis and Israel as well, he added.

French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius said Paris will not support the deal if Iran
refuses nuclear inspectors inside all installations - including
military sites. Tehran has repeatedly refused such demands,
insisting that its military facilities are not part of the atomic
program.

RT:Iran's Foreign Minister says an
agreement is possible if “people have their foot in reality, not
in illusions.” He also warns against excessive demands. What do
you make of his assessment?

Seyed Mohammad Marandi: The French foreign
minister seems to be intent on creating problems for a deal.
Obviously, no sovereign country is going to allow all of its
military sites to be inspected by foreign nations, especially
when the US government repeatedly threatens Iran with war; when
the US president constantly says “all options are on the
table,” or the vice-president says “we may launch a
war on Iran if we have to.” That obviously makes it very
important for the Iranians to be very careful about sensitive
information.

So what the French regime is trying to do is to take Iranian
dignity and sovereignty away from it. Remember, this is the same
French regime that when the Saudis began its aggression against
Yemen and started killing thousands of innocent Yemenis, which is
continuing, the French president immediately tried to take
advantage of the situation and sell more weapons to the Saudis.
The French government isn’t exactly a rational actor in all this.

RT:Why do you think there are such big
differences in how the sides interpret the framework deal?

SMM: The French government is very much
dependent on Qatari and Saudi oil wealth, and of course these
ironically are the two regimes that promote extremism more than
any other country in the world. The Saudis and the Qataris
promote Wahhabism. Right now both of them are supporting Al Qaeda
in Syria; the al-Nusra Front which is the Al-Qaeda branch in
Syria is heavily-funded by both of these governments, alongside
the Turks.

New documents are coming out showing that Americans knew this all
along. But it’s interesting that France, which claims to be an
utterly secular government, is so closely aligned to these two
regimes that promote extremism, and so dependent on wealth that
comes from the oil money in these Persian Gulf states.

RT:The French foreign minister's comment is
not the first of its kind from Western politicians. There was the
US Republicans' letter to Tehran. Is this a part of a coordinated
effort to undermine any potential deal?

SMM: That is what quite a few people in Iran
believe: They think that there are very powerful forces at play
in the West that do not want a deal, that have an invested
interest in tension. They are supported by the Saudi and Israeli
regime.

There are others [who] believe that there is some sort of
coordination even between the US administration and the French,
where one plays the good cop, and the other the bad cop. But at
the end of the day, if the US is unable to come to an agreement
with Iran this will look very bad for the US because Iran has
been very flexible over the past year and a half; it has allowed
extensive and intrusive expectations; it has slowed down key
element of its peaceful nuclear program. Despite the fact that
there has never been any evidence to show that Iran’s nuclear
program has been anything but peaceful.

If the US government and the French are unable to strike a deal
with the current Iranian administration, Iranian public’s opinion
will conclude that the US never really wanted a deal. I think the
international community - especially countries like Russia,
China, the non-aligned movement and BRICS countries in general -
will begin to ignore the US sanctions regime because they will
see it for what it is: unjust, inhuman and barbaric.

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